Saturday 3 November 1990 was my last complete day in Kashmir and I went to have a look at the Mughal Gardens. As usual I couldn't be sure that I was being taken to where I wanted to go. I am pretty sure that the place I visited was Nishat Bagh. A very beautiful place it was too. The autumnal shades of the maple trees were spectacular. Sadly (this being the closed season the watercourse seemed to have been drained. Research done in the course of writing this tells me that the gardens were built by Asif Khan in 1633 AD.
Below is one of the postcards i sent home. I've included it only because of the autumnal theme.
The picture below is a view of Dal lake from the gardens. Until I scanned it the other night I had overlooked this slide. The more I look at it the more I like it. Look across the lake and you can see the Hazratbal Mosque. I love this picture.
Finally I am including one of the postcards again. This time because it is of a similar subject but closer up.
The remainder of my last day in Srinagar was spent doing some shopping. I went to a tailor's shop where I had had a couple of shirts made up. I had a look round and then retired to the houseboat to pack my backpack and the goodies that I had accumulated.
Rudiger in Turkey had been right. I was accumulating stuff at a pretty amazing rate. I had a largish wicker basket full of stuff including my rug, wooden boxes and papier maché napkin rings.
My last meal aboard the Arizona was (according to the note in my filofax) an excellent vegetable curry.
The next day I was on the bus at 7.00am heading back down to Jammu. I really wasn't well. I was wearing Bashir's pullover because without it I'm sure I would have frozen to death. It was very very cold at that time of the morning. The journey back down was excruciatingly painful. The bus had a puncture at some point and I remember that I nearly fainted while the wheel was being changed. The bus arrived in Jammu very late and I checked into the First Class Railway Waiting Room dormitory for 12 rupees.
